Avars

Avars are an ethnic group native to the Caucasus. Living between the Black Sea to the west and Caspian Sea to the east, the Avars were pushed west by the Huns in the 6th century, and in 567 they destroyed the kingdom of the Gepids in the Pannonian basin, allying with the Lombards. By 600, the Avars inhabited the lands between the Caspian steppe in the east and Austria in the west, but the Bulgars rebelled, leaving the Avar Khaganate with just the region of Pannonia. In 804, Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne crushed the Avars, but they were allowed to rule the March of Pannonia and other border lands under the Frankish Empire. By 950, there were some Avars in Croatia, but the majority of the population returned to the Caucasus. These Avars were under the rule of the Gokturks, leading to the Avars converting to Islam, and the Avarian Khanate was later conquered by the Russian Empire in the mid-19th century. Today, almost all of the Avars are Muslim, with 912,090 living in Russia (850,011 in Dagestan), 49,800 in Azerbaijan, 1,996 in Georgia, 1,496 in Ukraine, and 15,675 in Kazakhstan.